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<blockquote data-quote="SWBaxter" data-source="post: 2411086" data-attributes="member: 27926"><p>Before then, in all likelihood - the first steam engine dates from the 1st century AD (invented by Heron of Alexandria), and Greek engineers had been working with steam as much as 250 years earlier than that. But to say they "had steam power technology" is a bit of an overstatement - Heron's device, the aeolipile, was a novelty that wouldn't have generated much power, and it doesn't appear that anyone thought to try. In part, this is because at the time most civilizations had slave-based economies, and labour-saving devices would actually have destabilized society by putting slaves out of work.</p><p> </p><p>The Greeks also had a pretty decent understanding of static electricity, but again there was no real impetus to refine that knowledge into practical inventions. So the world could have been a very different place if they'd kicked off the industrial revolution more than 1500 years early, but OTOH it would have to have been a different place before then in order for that to occur. Everything's linked.</p><p> </p><p>BTW, Heron also built coin-operated vending machines, automated puppet theatres, and various other cool things. He's also supposed to have designed a machine gun(!), but never built it due to lack of materials.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="SWBaxter, post: 2411086, member: 27926"] Before then, in all likelihood - the first steam engine dates from the 1st century AD (invented by Heron of Alexandria), and Greek engineers had been working with steam as much as 250 years earlier than that. But to say they "had steam power technology" is a bit of an overstatement - Heron's device, the aeolipile, was a novelty that wouldn't have generated much power, and it doesn't appear that anyone thought to try. In part, this is because at the time most civilizations had slave-based economies, and labour-saving devices would actually have destabilized society by putting slaves out of work. The Greeks also had a pretty decent understanding of static electricity, but again there was no real impetus to refine that knowledge into practical inventions. So the world could have been a very different place if they'd kicked off the industrial revolution more than 1500 years early, but OTOH it would have to have been a different place before then in order for that to occur. Everything's linked. BTW, Heron also built coin-operated vending machines, automated puppet theatres, and various other cool things. He's also supposed to have designed a machine gun(!), but never built it due to lack of materials. [/QUOTE]
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